Cook Your Cupboard Korean-American Style

August 11, 20137:00 AM ET

NPR Staff

This is an installment of NPR'sCook Your Cupboard, anongoingfood series about working with what you have on hand. Have a food that has you stumped?Share a photoand we'll ask chefs about our favorites. The current submission category: Freezer Finds!

Korean-American chef Edward Lee gives suggestions for how to use canned olives and noodles — ingredients that have eluded David Hobson of Frisco, Texas. Hobson submitted his dilemma to Cook Your Cupboard. Lee wouldn't touch Hobson's third find, canned mackerels, but he does give a tip on how to use Korean spices.

You can always make a pad thai sauce by mixing peanut butter, coconut milk, spices and fish sauce together and adding the mix to the noodles.

The Food: Fried Mackerels

The Fix: Actually, Lee passed on this one, but did have some ideas for another submission: some surplus Korean spices posted by Rachel Rottersman.

Bonus Tips: Spice Things Up

Korean spice blends can also be used in dips or seasoning for meat.

Roasted-hot-pepper paste can be mixed with any sort of vinegar at a 2-to-1 ratio — with a bit of lemon juice, sugar and sesame oil — to make a fantastic sauce for hamburgers, noodles and anything else.

Seasoned soybean paste is similar to the Japanese miso, Lee explains.

He recommends miso-smothered chicken: Pan-fry some chicken, mix in a big, thick spoonful of soy bean paste, some chicken stock and butter until it smoothes out to a gravy consistency.